Microcarriers Materials

Table 6.7 Preliminary screening of hESC culture on some microcarrier materials coated with laminin and vitronectin in MEF-CM after 5 days. Reproduced with permission from [2], Copyright 2014 Elsevier Inc.

Microcarriers are small particles, made of materials such as cellulose, dextran, glass, collagen, or gelatin. Generally, they have a spherical shape and present a surface structure and composition that promotes cell adhesion and growth. 

According to Butler (1987), many materials have been used in the production of microcarrier particles, and they have specific requirements that allow appropriate cell adherence and growth ... 

While this is a dynamic system subject to shear force, as compared with the static system of a flask or dish, the cells growing on microcarriers are still anchorage dependent. The microcarrier bead can be made of a variety of coated and derivatized materials glass (Solo Hill, MA, USA) dextran (Pharmacia) or modified plastic (MatTek, MA, USA). The same requirements for good surface attachment and growth still apply, and must be determined experimentally. 

The most important factor in this method is the selection of a suitable microcarrier for the cells. Microcarriers are made of materials such as dextran, polyacrylamide, polystyrene cellulose, gelatin and glass. They are coated with collagen or the negative charge of dimethylaminoethyl, diethylaminopropyl and trimethyl-2-hydroxyaminopropyl groups as shown in Table 8,... 

The preparation of novel solid materials is a huge field for applications such as microfiltration, separation membranes or their supports, microstructured polymer blends, and porous microcarriers for the culture of living cells and enzymes. The considerable progress accomplished over the last four years makes it possible to envision many future developments. Some attempts for specific applications have already been made as shown below. 

In this chapter, I would like to review polymer materials and bioencapsulation techniques focusing on the analysis of their merits and disadvantages, and to discuss some biomedical applications of nano- and microcarriers (both particles and capsules) with entrapped biomaterial, which have been recently reported in the literature. 

Figure 32.9 presents experimental video-image output at time intervals t = 0, 50, 180, 360 s after addition of toxin to fish chromatophores immobilized on gelatin microcarrier with 10% of ferromagnetic material. The aggregation of pigment granules induced by toxin in cells is obvious. 

Microcarrier Manufacturer Material Diameter (microns) Culture mode... 

A variety of systems can be employed for cell or enzyme immobilization. These include, for example, microcarriers, gel entrapment," hoUow fibers, encapsulation and conformal coatings. The latter three have been extensively tested in small animal models over the last 20 years, particularly in the area of diabetes therapy. The polymeric materials used in bioartificial endocrine devices (the terms bioartificial and endocrine device are often distinguished from artificial organs due to the presence of tissue in the former two) serve two major purposes ... 

Boo L, Selvaratnam L, Tai C C et al. Expansion and preservation of multipotentiality of rabbit bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells in dextran - based microcarrier spin culture. Journal of Materials Science Materials in Medidnefahead of printing)... 

Cell Line Microcarrier Name Materials of Microcarrier Shape Coating Materials on Microcarriers Medium Fold Expansion (Doubling Time ) Longest Culture Time Ref. (Year)... 

The potential applications of such a polymerization technique for preparing novel polymeric materials include microfiltration, separation membranes, polymer blends with a unique microstructural morphology, and porous microcarriers for cultures of living cells and enzymes [7]. Some other interesting ideas about the preparation of novel materials include the conductive composite film [95] and microporous silica gel [96]. 

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